REACH School set for expansion, years in the making
By Jordan Stoopler
Across her five years as principal of REACH School of the Riverside School Board – the only English-language public school for special-needs students on the South Shore – Marie-Helen Goyetche has seen enrolment figures nearly double, from 84 students in 2017 to 140 this school year. The increase in students, coupled with a lack of space, required the school to think on its feet.
“All our services are currently spread out,” said Goyetche. “Our speech pathologists and occupational therapists are dispersed across six locations. There is no gym or library at either of our two main locations on Queen and Green streets. We set up intervention rooms in little corners or in what used to be storage rooms. We have become very good at being creative.”
The tight accommodations and lack of resources for students will soon become a thing of the past, as the Quebec government has allocated 17 classrooms behind Saint-Lambert International High School to REACH as part of a $311-million investment to modernize South Shore schools. The announcement this past June was over 15 years in the making, with three previous expansion requests denied by the provincial government.
Goyetche says REACH students, ranging in age from 4 to 21 years old, will gain from being centralized under one roof. The school has plans of setting up a toy library, where students can borrow toys and games, in addition to books in a conventional library. A summer camp for students may also be in the works.
“The majority of our students will be under the same roof and the ones who need the intervention the most will be able to get it in one dedicated space,” said Goyetche.
According to Goyetche, staff will also benefit from the camaraderie that will come from working together in one space.
“We can actually end up in the same building, using all the same resources without having to take our cars from place to place,” she said. “The sense of belonging, whether it be for the students or the staff, is important. By being under the same roof, we are all together. It will be nice to have staff meetings together and collaborate, rather than be spread out across six different silos.”
Construction at the new site is expected to be completed by September 2024.
